According to NBA executives familiar with the league’s strategies, once the lockout is in place, the owners will push for a hard salary cap of $45 million, the elimination of guaranteed contracts and ask that the players swallow a 33 percent salary cut.

The concessions made in recent weeks, including the “flex cap” of $62 million and a guarantee of $2 billion in annual player payroll, will be off the table.

If this seems certain to guarantee the loss of the entire 2011-12 season, it is because there are owners who think it is necessary for the long-term viability of the league.

its not like prices are going down for you and me
its about the owners that are in the red wanting to get back in the black... or owners wanting their team to be more profitable

no, prices won't go down...but imho the NBA is getting precariously close to looking like MLB...a few "Haves" and a lot of "Have Nots"
structurally, this league is a mess...a hard cap could be the BEST thing to happen to this league in a long time

when i'm paying $250 of my hard earned money to watch an NBA game, i want to know that my team is playing on the same playing field as everyone else

With a hard cap and non guaranteed contracts I could see teams and players getting around this by implementing signing bonuses much like the NFL does. Would need some limits to it but it will net you star players, save your cap and if teams fuck up with the wrong player/contract it won't hurt the rest of the league.

i am predicting a very very long drawn out ordeal... the players and the owners are miles apart currently.
i'm hoping a hard cap gets done, and i wouldnt mind a year off in 2012 to get it done.
we're bottom feeders, and the last thing i want to deal with is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.
the field needs to get levelled.

seriously, look at baseball... does anyone other than NYY/NYM/BOS/PHI make any money or even care about the sport?

kicking himself for being so emotionally invested
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Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffb

meh, they'll end up with a 60+Mil flex cap. just get it over with already.

I doubt it, since with a ~$55M soft cap about 20 of 30 teams lost money.

A 33% pay cut seems too steep and ridiculous (I was hearing 15% elsewhere), but something needs to be done to reign in salaries on teams.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DocHoliday99

According to NBA executives familiar with the league’s strategies, once the lockout is in place, the owners will push for a hard salary cap of $45 million, the elimination of guaranteed contracts and ask that the players swallow a 33 percent salary cut.

$45M hard cap sounds like a starting point, not an end point. considering the average team had a payroll of ~$69 million last season, reaching $45M would be extremely difficult. Yes, a 33% paycut would take players to that spot, but that's an extremely bitter pill to swallow. Of course, getting no pay during a recession will definitely make the owners' case a lot easier to swallow, especially because of NBA players' infamous spending habits:

I welcome a lockout with open arms given how badly our team sucks. Seriously last year i was waiting for the season to end, so i would not object skipping one all together provided the end result is it levels the playing field somewhat and makes it easier for a team in Siberia such as ourselves to compete in the league.

Now that they won't get paid the least they would get is play together

Owners are in the hole they dug themselves. And lockout will hurt them more than any outcome of the talks.

I disagree with you there, owners are typically billionaires or close to it. They've been preparing for this for the last couple years, with salaries off the table - 57% - plus the running costs associated with team for the most part removed, I think them billionaires will be ok. I'm sure at the very least they will be writing what's left off as a loss on their corporate taxes lmao.